King's College London

About us:

Income Services, within the Finance, Procurement, Strategic Planning & Analytics Directorate (FPSPA), is looking to recruit a motivated individual for the position of Income Services Finance Assistant.

About the role:

The Income Services Finance Assistant role is to provide, maintain and support the smooth running of the various functions that sit within Income Services and to ensure that all University income, however it is received (bank statement, card, cheque), is accounted for promptly, correctly, and in accordance with the University’s financial policies and procedures. This will include dealing with multiple bank statements of various currencies.

The role holder will be required to undertake and understand a varied range of duties from the allocations of a broad range of differing receipt types (general ledger, research, student fee entries), to the undertaking of regular control account reconciliations.

The role is not simply one of data entry. With the appropriate training, the role holder will be expected to review what they’re being asked to post and to professionally challenge anything that is not in keeping with what’s expected, including the correct application of VAT and the allocation of receipts to the correct finance codes. 

The role holder will be responsible for dealing with the Receipting and EReturns processes of Income Manager (the Receipting module of Unit 4 ERP) and for providing support to the various King’s internal business areas using them and for dealing with the uploading of general ledger accounting files.

The role holder will also be required to assist with any of the various compliance activities that may touch upon Income Services (e.g PCI DSS compliance, Anti-Money Laundering (AML), Know Your Payer/Customer (KYP/KYC), Sanctions checking, as and when required and as compliance activities increase.

As with all staff in the Income Services team, the role holder will be expected to proactively spot potential risk areas / gaps and either deal with them accordingly, and/or report to the Income Services Supervisor (and/or the Head/Deputy Head of Income Services) where of a more concerning, unusual nature. 

The role holder will report to the Income Services Supervisor and will look to learn from and to provide cover for the Income Services Officer(s) as and when required to.

The role holder will be responsible for :

•       Correctly, promptly and efficiently allocating incoming financial transactions received into the various University bank accounts

•       Management of the Income Services inbox in accordance to agreed SLA’s

•       Providing a constantly professional, efficient, and courteous customer service at all times, whilst building and maintaining successful working relationships with immediate colleagues and the internal business area stakeholders we deal with

•       Undertaking further investigation where received funds cannot be identified to ensure we can allocate correctly internally and/or return funds back to original source where they are found not to be intended for King’s

•       Dealing with and support the Receipting and EReturns functions within Income Manager (the receipting module of Unit 4 ERP)

•       Being involved in the testing of the King’s Finance system, Unit 4 ERP

•       Continually and proactively thinking about ways to make efficiencies, improvements or automations to existing processes and to identify and anticipate potential problems/queries before they become more significant

•       The reviewing of (prior to posting), and processing of GL07 accounting files received, that require uploading into the King’s Finance system, Unit 4 ERP

•       To investigate and deal with/correct/reverse any receipting issues whatever they relate to, Receipting, EReturns, GL07 accounting files 

•       Undertaking month-end reconciliations of control accounts and reviewing relevant entries on the weekly bank reconciliations undertaken by Financial Accounts

•       As part of their everyday work, the role holder will need to record statistics and KPI’s (key performance indicators), ensuring stats and analytics are recorded for the work being undertaken

•       Ensuring all processes are professionally documented and such documentation remains fit for purpose

•       Ensuring the University remains cashless and to proactively push for any cheque senders to revert to paying King’s via one of the more efficient and less manual payment routes

•       Assist with any of the various compliance activities that may touch upon Income Services (e.g PCI DSS compliance, Anti-Money Laundering (AML), Know Your Payer/Customer (KYP/KYC), Sanctions checking, as and when required

•       Banking and receipting of any cheques and/or cash received from internal stakeholders

•       Assist with year-end reporting and liaise with internal and external auditor queries by providing relevant supporting backup documentation

•       Performing periodic security spot checks on PED (PIN Entry Devices) located at various King’s business areas and at different King’s campuses

•       Actively look to ensure business areas are following the proper financial procedures, such as the raising of official external invoices, educating on the correct procedures where they are not being followed

•       Play an active part in the Financial Services community and demonstrate a commitment to change, improvement and development both as an individual and in the provision of services to the university and outside stakeholders.

•       The above list of responsibilities may not be exhaustive, and the post holder will be required to undertake such tasks and responsibilities as may reasonably be expected within the scope and grading of the post.

This is a full time / part time post (35 Hours per week), and you will be offered an indefinite contract.

The FPSPA Directorate operates a hybrid working model which will require a mixture of on campus attendance combined with working remotely as determined by each relevant business area.

About you: (the candidate)

To be successful in this role, we are looking for candidates to have the following skills and experience:

Essential criteria

1.      Must have a very good standard of general education, GSCE’s or equivalent including Mathematics & English

2.      Must have excellent grammatically correct written and oral communication skills and have the ability to communicate both confidently and professionally at all times 

3.      Must possess strong all-round IT skills including being competent and confident in using the full MS Office suite, Outlook, Teams, SharePoint, Word, and be particularly proficient with Excel  

4.      Must have an excellent and professional customer service skillset/mindset with the confidence to professionally enforce and ensure the proper financial and compliance controls and procedures are adhered  

5.      Must have a highly professional approach to work, be a self-motivated and competent individual with the energy, drive & determination to get things done correctly through to completion, and who continually wants to develop their skills and knowledge 

6.      Must have at least 12 months professional experience of system/data entry into a financial accounting system(s) within a banking, cashiering, ecommerce, card payments or financial type environment, together with a good basic knowledge of accountancy principles 

7.      Must possess excellent attention to detail, with an accurate, right first time and methodical approach whilst having the ability to prioritise a busy workload and manage competing priorities working to tight deadlines 

8.      Must possess the ability to work collaboratively and to build effective working relationships with our various stakeholders both internal and external, whilst being an enthusiastic and proactive team player who possesses excellent interpersonal skills and a positive can-do attitude

Desirable criteria

1.      Experience of working within a Higher Education environment  

2.      Experience of working with Unit 4 ERP (formerly named Business World, and Agresso) or other corporate finance ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) systems 

3.      Knowledge and good understanding of PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) 

4.      Knowledge and good understanding of financial controls, anti-fraud related compliance regulations (e.g. Money Laundering) and legislation (e.g Proceeds of Crime Act) and of Data Protection Legislation / General Data Protection Regulation 

Downloading a copy of our Job Description

Full details of the role and the skills, knowledge and experience required can be found in the Job Description document, provided at the bottom of the next page after you click “Apply Now”. This document will provide information of what criteria will be assessed at each stage of the recruitment process.

We pride ourselves on being inclusive and welcoming. We embrace diversity and want everyone to feel that they belong and are connected to others in our community.

We are committed to working with our staff and unions on these and other issues, to continue to support our people and to develop a diverse and inclusive culture at King's. We ask all candidates to submit a copy of their CV, and a supporting statement, detailing how they meet the essential criteria listed in the advert. If we receive a strong field of candidates, we may use the desirable criteria to choose our final shortlist, so please include your evidence against these where possible.